


No Ghosts Need Apply

by Tht0neGal666



Series: Haunt The Lonely [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Angst, Arguing, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Canonical Character Death, ESPer Haruno Sakura, Gen, Haruno Sakura Sees Ghosts, Hero Complex, Kid Haruno Sakura, POV Uchiha Shisui, Pre-Canon, Protective Haruno Sakura, Protective Uchiha Shisui, Talking To Dead People, Uchiha Shisui Needs a Hug, Uchiha Shisui is a ghost, Unresolved Emotional Tension, no one is happy here they are just bickering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 20:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30077670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tht0neGal666/pseuds/Tht0neGal666
Summary: Shisui was sitting in the bathtub to stay out of her way. She kind of looked like if she didn't get to pace she'd just start punching through walls, and he only kind of doubted she'd find a way to literally do just that, with crystalized spite or something.He didn't say anything, though. He had to figure out something to say."You're- I know you're just trying to be a good old person." She gritted, "But don't you get it? Just cause you were forced into a war and you didn't want to be doesn't mean that's what's happening to me. We aren't even technically at war right now! I'm not being forced into anything by anyone but myself, because I need to get out there. I need to get strong, and I have stuff to do."
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Shisui
Series: Haunt The Lonely [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1355656
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80





	No Ghosts Need Apply

**Author's Note:**

> lmao I tried to write the rest of the Danzo fic and this came out instead?? oops

"Are you _seriously_ still planning on applying for the Gennin exams tomorrow?" Shisui griped, watching the ten- _ten-_ year old get ready for bed early- or, early for her. It was still nearly midnight, but dear Sakura-chan was a bit of a night owl. She sighed, grabbing a toothbrush with a considering look, like maybe if she tried _really hard_ she could poke him through the eye with it.

"Are you _seriously_ gonna lecture me about this again?" she returned, rolling her eyes. 

" _Yes_!" He nearly screeched, "Because, apparently, it didn't stick the first dozen times! Early graduation is terrible for your mental health, and draws attention to you, often leading to quicker promotions and reputations that put you through _traumatizing_ circumstances before you can fully understand what they even _are_ -"

Sakura-chan snorted, running the toothbrush under water. "Shisui-kun, I'm always in _traumatizing circumstances._ Being in the same room as _you_ is a _traumatizing circumstance._ I don't want to hear concerns for my mental health from the jackass that described his death to me in as much gory detail as he could manage."

"Oh, but you take advice from Rin-chan?" He demanded. The _hypocrisy._

"yahuh? Why wouldn't I?" She furrowed her brow, actually confused.

"She did the same thing!" He crowed incredulously, and her face fell into something more defensive.

"No she didn't! I _asked_ her how she died, and she made super sure I wanted to know, and warned me it was sad, and waited like a week just to make sure I didn't change my mind and _then_ she told me. _You_ were just being a _jerk!_ Because the _only_ thing you care about is _winning arguments!_ _"_ She started brushing her teeth in an almost _aggressive_ manner, somehow, and Shisui had to admit he was impressed. A little bit.

"Thats- II'm not-" He sighed, massaging his temple with two fingers. He didn't get headaches- being dead and all- but the motion is comforting in its familiarity, at least. "Whatever. That's _semantics,_ and I was actually talking about her scare tactics around your Sight, but _whatever._ The point! Is that, while I can't and won't deny you've seen some shit, you haven't _been through_ very much. Being a legit fully fledged child solider is _not_ the same thing as seeing ghosts, and you do _not_ know what you're signing up for. What's the confusion?"

She spits out her toothpaste, and doesn't even rinse before she turns to him with cold vitriol, eyes glowing. Spectres creeped in curiously at the surge of power and, for once, she doesn't even seem to notice.

"Why does it _matter?"_ She demanded. "This is going to be my life anyway. I'm already used to things I _definitely_ shouldn't be. I know the numbers, and the rules, and the politics, and basically everything else I can possibly need to prepare! _No one_ is a Shinobi because they think it'll be good for their health! You're _right,_ jerkface, I _haven't_ been through a lot! I _don't_ have the experience! So I need to _get it!"_ She insisted, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face. _"_ What's _your_ confusion?"

Somewhere out there, a god was laughing directly at Shisui, and he couldn't even be angry because 1) he literally chose to make this little girl his problem and 2) it's probably almost definitely karmic retribution of some sort.

(But, like, could Karma please hit him in a way that didn't put Sakura-chan's already-frail mental health _directly_ in the crossfire?)

"It matters _because_ this is going to be your life anyway." He explained, grasping for paitence. "Why rush it? Just take your 12 years of relative peace for the blessing they are. Not to mention, _like I said,_ the attitude towards early graduates is entirely different. You'll always stick out, to your peers and higher-ups, and whatever transitional-kid-gloves are afforded to regular Gennin you'll be exempt from. They'll isolate you and monitor you and try their darndest to control you! Avoiding that alone is worth just sucking it up and waiting the two years!"

 _"No!"_ She all but shouts, fists balled at her sides, face as pink as her hair. "I _can't_ wait, Shisui. This isn't _enjoying my last years of peace_ or whatever you think it is, it's-it's _torture!_ I know there are things to do out there, I know people that want me to do them, I know _how_ to do them and what they mean to people and- I know I can help, if I could just leave this _stupid_ village. I can look for Itachi-kun, and Obito-nii, and I could see Uzushiogakure, and check in on relatives or deliver last messages or find lost items, and a million other smaller things, like find that flower that Biwako-baa liked. I can finally help people move on! I can do things that I can't do here, sitting on my hands in the academy, pretending I'm listening to a lecture about lord-second as if I don't talk about Jutsu theory with him every year!" She ranted, stomping around her little bathroom that was barely five paces in length. She was going to wear a hole in the floor at this rate.

Shisui was sitting in the bathtub to stay out of her way. She kind of looked like if she didn't get to pace she'd just start punching through walls, and he only kind of doubted she'd find a way to literally do just that, with crystalized spite or something. 

He didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say, brain spinning with _I can't let this happen not again not again I can't._

"You're- I _know_ you're just trying to be a good old person." She gritted, "But don't you get it? Just cause _you_ were forced into a war and you didn't want to be doesn't mean that's what's happening to me. We aren't even technically at war right now! I'm not being forced into anything by anyone but myself, because I _need_ to get out there. I need to get strong, and I have stuff to do."

"...Sakura-chan." He whispers, trying to keep his voice level. "None of that is your problem. You don't owe any of us anything. All ghosts aren't your personal responsibility- that's _insane_."

"I made promises." She shrugs, not looking at him anymore. She grabs some floss, almost breaking the little box as she spools some out. "I made promises, so I'm gonna keep them. And one of my promises was to help people that need me." She looked back at him, jade eyes rock hard. "I didn't expect so _many_ people to need me. But they do. And I'm gonna keep my promise, because they need _help._ And I'm the one that can do it. _"_ She looks back to the mirror and starts flossing, apparently deciding that the conversation was over.

Shisui sighed. He was getting nowhere _fast,_ with her. He had to admire her principals, even at such a young age, even such naïve ones.

"It's already been years. None of us are going anywhere- it's not like we have much a choice. In the scheme of things, waiting another year or two to leave the village isn't going to hurt anyone." He tried.

Again, she shook her head, floss still in her teeth. "'ou don' 'ow dat" She denied, finishing and spitting in the sink again. "you _can't_ know that. You know, you aren't as smart as you want me to think." She scowled, grabbing a brush for her hair. She'd been growing it out recently. He ignored the small urge to reminder her that having long hair was bad practice for a gennin. It didn't matter anyway- she _wasn't_ going to _be_ a genin. 

"Excuse you-"

"Itachi-san's still alive." She cut him off, not sparing him a glance. "Probably. _Obito-nii_ might still be alive, somewhere. You can't know for sure that something terrible won't happen in the next two years- something preventable, maybe, if _I'm_ there. I know things people don't."

"C'mon, _Sakura-chan."_ He groaned, anxiously tapping his foot as he tried to figure out how to persuade her. Literally _anything._ "....No one wants you to find Itachi. Mostly we just worry about Sasuke-kun." He corrected carefully, a final argument forming on his tongue. "Kushina-san wants you to watch over Naruto. Hitomi-san's daughter is in your year. And those kids- they all _need_ the extra support, you know? Isn't it best to keep them close? Probably end up on a team with one or two of them? If you're trying to play the long game, and prioritizing your friend's wishes specifically, wouldn't waiting be the best way to go?"

Sakura scowled at the mirror. Her brush caught a knot in her hair, and she tugged it free harshly enough that she winced, but didn't make a _sound._ He continued steadily.

"Obito's....if he's somehow not dead, and he's been missing for this long, he can probably take care of himself. He'll be fine another few years- and if he isn't, there's nothing you, a fresh Gennin, could do to help _him,_ a literal _war vet,_ anyways." He pushed, the words fitting a bit strangely in his mouth.

He never liked talking about Obito. Unlike the girls, he had.... _doubts_ that the guy was still alive, and even _more_ doubts about that somehow being a remotely good thing. If he was alive, and he hadn't come back to the village, there was a _reason,_ and chances were it was nothing remotely good. 

(Frankly- though he'd never voice it- he firmly believed that the _best_ realistic scenario was that he _was_ dead. Also the most realistic scenario overall- which, to his cynical annoyance, probably meant it wasn't the case. Against all odds, Shinobi luck was _never_ that easy.)

"...There's _plenty_ of Uchiha that do, in fact, want me to find Itachi." She pointed out absently, and he rolled his eyes. She was just stalling for time, finding an argument. _Like he had._ Apparently, she _did_ listen to his advice. Whatever. He'd play along- if she had time to think it through and figured he was right all by herself, she couldn't blame him. Much.

"None that are nice to you. None you really care about all that much. And most of them just want Itachi _dead,_ not specifically by your hands. If you wait a few years, you'll graduate with Sasuke-kun as his peer, maybe even his teammate, and he'll be hunting down Itachi anyway." he waved off, biting his lip. _This_ wasn't something he liked talking about either. If he had a stomach, he was sure the topic would make him queasy, shinobi training or not. "...The two of you together might even pull it off. Eventually." He tempted, only half-bluffing, and the claim tasted like blood between his teeth.

Which was _weird,_ without tastebuds. Two and a half years, and being a ghost was still so goddamn _weird._

"Flattery." She accused evenly, eyeing him through her bangs for a moment, and he shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. She placed down her brush and started drumming her fingers on the counter. "Hizashi-san's son is a year above me. So is Panda-san's niece. By your logic, I should still graduate a year early." 

"..Better then two." He sighed reluctantly. He didn't want her graduating a _year_ early either, but it was better then nothing. Plus, if she backed down now, he had one more year to figure out the right argument to make her understand.

"Not really. Not in any way that'll matter all that much. Another year or two in the village is practically _nothing,_ but another year or two in the field getting experience could be _everything."_ She whispered, eyes locked on her own hands. She shook her head, a sad sort of small smile snaking onto her face. "Obito-nii...I'm realistic with my goals, Shisui. Right now, I just need to find out what happened to him. The longer I look, the better. It really _is_ a needle-in-a-haystack situation, I get that, so the only advantage I could _possibly have_ is time. And...that's true everywhere else, too. I've only got so long to help along eternity a bit...."

Sakura stretched slowly, opening her mouth in a silent yawn long enough to leave tears in the corners of her eyes, and she looked _exhausted._ Shisui _felt_ exhausted. Arguing with her, like this....it was draining on the spirit, even when he didn't have a body to reflect that.

"Sakura, I...." He trailed off, unsure what to say. Unsure what else he _could_ say.

(She looked half as tired as Itachi _ever_ did, aproximently a dozen times worse then how _any_ ten year old should look, and his glimpses of Sasuke were _just as bad,_ and Shisui couldn't do _shit_ to fix any of it, really, but he would _try_.)

The girl looked up at him with hard jade eyes, clouded by duty and determination and ghosts, and for what might be the first time ever, Shisui drew a blank. It was like...the opposite of puppy-dog-eyes. She was still _wrong,_ but it was so _hard_ to argue with her when she looked like that.

"Shisui." She murmurs, so quiet he leans in to make sure he hears, but firm nonetheless. He curled his lips in annoyance. "Shisui, I'm going to take the Gennin Exams. That's what's going to happen tommorow." She hopped off the counter, and walked _throguh_ him to open the bathroom door. 

"I can't let you do this, Sakura-chan." He sighs, trailing behind her to her room. She shrugs, not even looking at him.

"Goodnight, Shisui." She yawns, a bit more incoherently, snuggling into her blankets. He rolled his eyes.

Stubborn brat. He had the sudden, strange urge to apologize to Mikoto-san. A lot. Karmic retribution _indeed._

"Good night, Sakura-chan. Good luck on your exam." He ruffled her hair, and she scrunched her nose at the- whatever it felt like, for her. "Get some actual _rest."_

A smirk graced his lips, almost against his will, as he plucked some names from his memory bank, matched them to like minded opinions, and formed a plan of attack in his head.

_Yeah, good luck, Sakura-chan._

_'Cause I'll make sure you need it._

**Author's Note:**

> And then Sakura goes to take the exam and fails the psych portion because Shisui and friends pestered her, as we all know. That bastard.


End file.
